


A Time To Rest

by CharmyWizard



Series: Charmy’s Fantasy Stories [6]
Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Bonding, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Taking care of eachother, lendad, mud dogs, rottmnt fantasy au, yeti bear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26733499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharmyWizard/pseuds/CharmyWizard
Summary: A Story in 3 parts,  Unfortunately, the desire to push yourself is a family trait. Its a lesson that Loathsome Leonard, Donnie and Raph all have to learn at some point. Thankfully they are surrounded by family members who love and care about them.
Relationships: Dastardly Danny & Loathsome Leonard (TMNT), Donatello & Dastardly Danny (TMNT), Donatello & Loathsome Leonard (TMNT), Donatello & Malicious Mickey & Loathsome Leonard & Dastardly Danny (TMNT), Donatello & Raphael (TMNT)
Series: Charmy’s Fantasy Stories [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897126
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32
Collections: The Messenger The Hunter The Prince and The Thief





	A Time To Rest

“Danny”

Even though it had come from Mickey, who was easily one of Danny’s top four favorite people in the world, he still lets out a low growl. “If I open my eyes and the world is not ending, I’m going to feed you to Donnie,” he says with a dramatic roll, grabbing his pillow to put over his head. “And I’m not kidding.”

“It’s Len.” Mickey said with more urgency shaking him with his flippers

Danny’s eyes pop open as he twists up into a sitting position, and shoves his feet into his slippers. “What’s going on? Is it his breathing? Any bleeding?!” Danny pulls on his velvet robe, “Have you tried to get a hold of Amaranth-“ before pausing, “wait a minute, what’s he doing?”

“Cooking.”

Normally an answer of that nature would have had him glaring at Mickey before dramatically flopping back into bed. But with a loud irritated sigh not directed at the eel, he ties his robe with a yank. “I”ll take care of this,” he says as he stomps out and down the stairs with Mickey close behind.

The aforementioned thief was indeed at the iron stove, which wouldn’t be unusual in itself (he was usually the one who did the cooking anyway). But before he would be standing up straight juggling eggs, pretending he was going to crack one on Danny’s head, sometimes with Donnie on his hip or shoulders help if he ‘needed’ a helper. But now Len leans heavily over the counter on his unbroken arm, as though his own spine couldn’t handle the weigh of his body. His left arm, which normally would be happily juggling eggs trying to draw a laugh from the hungry family, is wrapped in plaster from his elbow to his fingertips and probably couldn’t even hold a singularly chopstick. Danny could see Len’s wrapped ribs from under his stretched out sleep shirt and all coupled with the bandage covering his left eye. With his bandaged hand, he held two eggs in his shaky grip, all with the look of pained concentration, that told Danny he hadn’t even noticed one of the eggs was not only cracked in half but smeared across his hair (probably trying to get his hair out of his face). “Morning, breakfast will be ready in a sec,” Leonard says to them in a form of explanation. 

With a growl loud enough to vibrate his teeth, Danny stomps over, grabbing him by his unbroken arm and yanks him away from the counter. “Ow!” Len spun to glare at him. “What’s your problem!?”

“Get back to bed now.” Danny gave Len a poke in the collarbone.

“Bite me.” Len snaps back before turning back to the stove. Danny drags a irritated hand down his face before looking around the room. It was only then he realizes Donnie was sitting on the ground, watching the two of them with no small amount of sadness in his young child’s eyes. Clinging to his stuffed Yeti Bear (which was really just a bunch of Len’s shirts sewn together to make a bear for him). His dark pink eyes look to where Len was cooking before he hides his face into his Yeti Bear, letting out a small pained noise that he doesn’t doubt escapes his fathers notice. Danny made sure to glare at the stubborn distracted yokai, before walking over to where the child sat. “Hey buddy,” Danny says kneeling down, drawing the child’s tear-filled eyes back to him with a small sniff. “Do you need a hug?” he asks.

Donnie nods quickly before holding a hand out to him without releasing his yeti, Danny easily lifts the turtle into his arms, unsurprised when Don hides his face in Danny’s chest, but he is surprised that Donnie's leg brace was missing, but he manages to keep from sighing. One problem at a time. “I know kiddo, I’m sorry your Dad is such a jerk.” He says more then loud enough for the cooking yokai to hear. Judging by the sudden cracking of eggs, Danny knows he’s done his job. Len turns to looks at them with such a concerned face it makes him wonder if Len was in so much pain he had forgotten Donnie was in the room. “Don? What’s wrong? Why are you upset?” He limps over, reminding Danny with no small amount of irritation of the leg cast that had just come off. Len struggles to push his bangs out of his face to look at them with his unbandaged, but concerned eye “It’s ok I’m right here baby boy, I got ya.” He put his hands on Don’s sides to lift him away but Donnie squirms away from his touch and turns his face from him with a tremble and a whimper clinging to Danny even tighter. The expression on Lens face was almost enough to make Danny feel bad for him, as he looks to Danny for a explanation.

Danny sighs, rubbing Don’s shell for a few moments. He had grown up with twenty siblings and more niblings then he knew what to do with. But he hadn’t been as close to them as he was to this one. And even though he wasn’t a fan of kids he had a special place in his heart for this tiny turtle. Danny places his hand on Don’s scalp and tilting his head upward to look into his tear-filled eyes. “Hey, I’m taking you and your Uncle out for breakfast. So is it ok if he helps you get ready?” Don gives a small nod, letting Mickey lift him away. With Len confused by Don’s reaction, it was easy to grab his arm again. “Your Dadl’n is going upstairs to rest. Because he loves you and doesn’t want you to worry about him.” His fingers pinch a cluster of skin inside Len’s elbow and twists hard. “Isn’t that right DAD?”

Len glares at him as though he’s about to argue back (or yell at him for pinching him) before looking back to the small child in Mickey’s arms who was finally looking at him again as he rests his cheek on Mickey’s shoulder, “Y-yeah, headin’ there now”

“G r e a t.” Danny immediately starts for the stairs, pushing Len ahead of him before turning and giving Donnie a cheerful wave, “Be right back!” before stomping up the stairs to where Len’s still giving him a look that is somehow a mixture of anger, confusion, and concern. 

“Danny what the hell-“ he began before Danny gave him another shove, this time through Len’s open bedroom door. 

“GET IN BED.” Danny hisses as he stomps around the room. “Where the hell’s the medicine that Amaranth gave you?!” He demands though he doesn’t expect a answer. He pulls open one of Len’s dresser drawers. “I swear you’re the biggest most inconsiderate asshat in the world-I told you to get in bed- I can’t turn my back on you for five seconds, you’re a freaking Dad you can’t just be stupid -did I say you could get up?! Get under those covers-“ Danny finds two pill bottles and a container of eye drops stuffed underneath a pair of patched pants. “Why and I not surprised you haven’t opened these?!” Danny spins around and holds up the evidence as Len finally lays on his bed, but rolls his eyes with a scoff crossing his arms in a way that almost mirrors the young child downstairs. 

“Because I don’t need them-“

“Oh you don’t need the medicine that not only is supposed to help you heal faster, but keep you from being in pain 24/7 and make sure you don’t lose vision in your eye completely!?” Danny demands pouring out some water from a pitcher by Len’s bed into a cup. He breaks the seal on the medicine and popping out the needed dosage. “Not to mention Amaranth gave these to us for free so you need to freaking take them,” he says grabbing Len’s uninjured wrist and turning his hand over to drop in his hand. 

Len glares at him before putting the medicine in his mouth and drinking the water. “There happy!?” 

“No, lay on your back so I can give you these drops. And get your damn bangs out of your face.” Danny says twisting the cap off. Len, grumbling hesitating then he touches the egg that had been caked into his hair as though just noticing it, but otherwise does as he’s told. Danny carefully peels back the bandage enough to reveal Len’s eye, his stomach twists to see faded color and healing scar circled around his eye like a crescent moon. He took care to drop the liquid into his eye before covering it up. “There, idiot. Just do that three times a day for a month and maybe I’ll stop being pissed at you.”

“I don’t get what the big deal is-“

“The big deal is you need to take care of yourself. This is the third time you’ve almost died in front of that kid in almost a year. Do you know how traumatizing that is?! First when your heart almost exploded running him to the hospital, THEN you had the nerve to almost get crushed by a rock monster, and when-“ he had been counting out the times Len has almost died on his hand but at that one Danny stopped when his voice cracks. He forces himself to take a deep breath and to ignore the concerned look Len’s giving him. He hated it when Len makes it hard to hate him. “I ain’t strong Len. I can’t be the one who tells that kid his Dad’s gone, especially when it’s preventable. So you have to be stronger. You have to be more careful and more responsible.”

“I am responsible-“

“Please, you’d starve to death if we weren’t here to remind you to eat. Before a few months ago you hadn’ been to a healer since you were twelve. You’re lucky to be alive. And when it comes to Donnie-“ Danny paused, frowning and puffing his cheeks angrily. 

Len quirks his brow. “You were about to compliment me, weren’t you?”

“Yes and I hate it,” Danny hates it even more when Len smirks at him, one of these days he was going to send that jerk to the mystic moon, “But the truth of the matter is you’re a great Dad when it comes to taking care of that sweet kid. But when he sees you get hurt, and then you stomp around like you’re unbreakable it hurts him even more then it hurts me and Mickey. You would have noticed it too if you weren’t half delirious with pain. Like that time he saw that scar on your back from when you protected him from that rock monster and wouldn’t stop crying!?” And-“ Again, Danny pauses, “and now he blames himself for how you are now.”

Len lowers his gaze, absentmindedly touching his bandaged eye. “It wasn’t his fault, I should of noticed those kids kicking out his bad leg. It’s my fault he lost control.” Len looks at Danny again. “But I don’t regret what I did, if I hadn’t tackled April out of the way that boulder would of killed her.”

“I know that, but taking responsibility for your actions also means taking care of yourself after the consequences. I bet you didn’t notice he didn’t have his leg brace on?”

Len’s good eye widen before giving a pained sigh draping his arm over his others. On anyone else it might of looked over dramatic but on Len its just a way to vent his frustrations. “Damn it, he was doing so good with that too. He went a whole month without taking it off.”

“He didn’t put it on because when he sees his big brave Dad walking around trying to act like he’s fine when he’s clearly in a shit ton of pain, he feels like he should do the same.”

Len sighs closing his eye shamefully. ”I didn’t think of that.”

“Of course you didn’t, that’s why me and Mickey are here. To make your job a little easier,” Danny paused for a moment before flicking Len’s bangs out of his face. He had also learned from Mickey a while ago that touching Len’s hair was something his mom used to do so it usually helped calm him down. And, despite the fact he was angry enough to kick Len into the Mystic Moon, he doesn’t want him to be upset. “Listen asshole, show that kid its ok to use a leg brace by resting up and showing him its ok to need help. And take your damn medicine too. That way you can go back to taking care of him when you’re better. Until then let us do the heavy lifting. Ok?”

“Yeah, ok.” Len lays his head back on the pillow. “I did see he was staring at my bandage.”

“Not surprising, and with the scar it’s going to leave it wont be any easier. He’ll probably always look at it and remember how bad he hurt you. So when the time comes and you don’t need it anymore you should find something to cover that eyesore up. For him. For your son.”

The thief squeezes his eye shut with a shaky sigh before looking back at him. “Yeah you’re right. When you get back, can you bring Donnie to me please? I need to apologize to him.”

“Now you’re sounding less stupid.” Danny said standing up, pulling the blanket over him. “If you’re good, I’ll bring back some food for you too. If you’re not I’m force feeding you dirt.”

Len grins. “Yeah, sounds like a plan,” He said rolling around. 

(#)(#)\/(#)(#)

Even though he was used to it at this point, Len still jumps out of sleep when the sound of breaking glass fills the air. His sketch book falling off his chest as he snatches up his handle from the ground by his bed and forms his hooked staff. But it’s not until he hurries to check on Donnie in his room and looks inside to see an empty bed that he realizes the source of the noise isn’t a thief (a non Mud Dog Thief). His racing heart is replaced with a tired sigh of irritation. “Damn it Dee.” He collapses his staff and puts it in his pocket. In a way he’s grateful the noise didn’t wake Mickey or Danny. But now he has a missing kid to look for, He grumbles as he hurries down the stairs. The crisp autumn air makes him reach back into the house long enough to grab his brown coat. When he sees the soft light coming from the small shed by the house it only adds to his irritation. Without waiting to knock, he pushes the door open, “Doniel...” He says with a warning tone as he crosses his arms in a classic dad stance.

The fourteen year old jumps out of his shell before looking at him. His face and sleep clothes are covered in grease, sitting on a rolling chair by the wooden frame of a mystic cycle, its intricate gears open and a toolbox by his side. The source of the noise probably came from the broken bottle of hover helium by Donnie’s leg. “Um,” Don starts, pushing his goggles away from his eyes. “You’re dreaming? This is your conscious telling you to give Doniel a reasonable bedtime and twenty-five new books” he wiggles his fingers at him as though trying to cast a spell on him. But even if Donnie was capable of magic he wasn’t sure he’d be worried.

“Nice try.” Len takes off a towel hanging from the wall and kneels down, cleaning up the mess. “You’re supposed to be in bed.”

“Technically I was, but then decided that was a stupid idea. And came down here.” Don says in form of explanation as Len drags a hand down his face. His eyes went to Don’s handicapped leg and the other that’s wrapped up in walking plaster cast with no small amount of sadness. “Give me your arm, I’ll help you back to bed.”

Don crosses his arms and turns away. “I can walk fine on my own.”

“Don’t argue with me, you’re lucky I’m not grounding you. So give me your arm before I change my mind,” Len said, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. Donnie, probably knowing Len was more than willing to follow through on that threat, sighs and holds up his arm. Len takes his forearm, but as Don moves to stand, he suddenly lets out a cry of pain and his legs crumbles underneath him. Len quickly catches him by the forearms before he could hit the ground and sits him back on the rolling chair, the room trembles but for a second which was enough to raise Leonard’s concern even more. “Don what’s wrong?! What hurts?!” He asks, looking from Don’s broken leg to his braced one. Whether Don didn’t want to answer or couldn’t he didn’t know, but his only response was Don pressing his forehead against his chest with a muffled whimper. Len wraps an arm around a Dons shoulders and one underneath his knees and easily scoops up his son in his arms, hurrying out the door and back into the house. Instead of going to Don’s room, he runs past and kicks in Danny’s door, the rat gives a small shriek as he jumps awake looking around in panic, “Danny, it’s Donnie.” He says in form of explanation.

The rat is already sitting up and pulling on his bathrobe, “I swear like father like son.” He says, Len hurries back over to Don’s room, at this point Mickey is awake as well and already has the door open, “Thanks” Len says before carefully laying Donnie on his bed who immediately curls up in a little ball and holds his braced leg to his chest with tears clinging to his closed eyes, Len kneels down and takes Dons free hand as Danny sits on the edge of the bed. ”Donnie boy can you hear me?” He asks cupping the side of his face. Don gave a small nod without opening his eyes. “Ok good.” Danny moves to touch Dons’ leg only to have Don flinch and pull away, “Len, sit with your kid, try to distract him, I can’t look at his leg if he keeps pulling away. 

Len nods and scoops Don back up into his arms before climbing onto the bed and sits against the headboard where Don immediately hides his streaming face in Len’s shirt. Whether from shame at his tears or for the comfort Len didn’t know. “I gotcha baby boy,” he said holding him close with his chin tucked over his scalp. Watching as Danny rolls up Dons pant leg, carefully removing the brace with a touch he knew was gentle but still made Donnie flinch, digging his fingers into Len’s arm, “I know I know just focus on me ok?” He says. Its only then he sees Mickey standing in the door way, watching on with no small amount of concern. Len knows its his desire to help that keeps him from just walking away, “Mickey can you make some tea please?” He asks in a thinly veiled attempt to give the eel something to do, but Mickey nods and hurries away. Len does what he can to distract Donnie from the pain with soft comforting voice as he helplessly watches Danny look over Don’s leg “Is it the muscles? The bones? Do we to go to the Healing House?” He asks stroking the back of Don’s scalp and glancing around the room. Making sure they wouldn’t have anymore trembling to deal with.

Danny gives him a small glare, probably for distracting him, before closing his eyes, when they open again his black beady eyes changes to a faint glowing whitish green, looking up and down Don’s leg. “Looks like he’s been putting too much weight on it shuffling around.” Before Danny blinks and returns his eyes to normal and giving the soft shell an unimpressed look. Len looks to his son, “Doniel.” He says in a tone that demands the turtles attention, “Care to explain?”

“I-“ Don pauses with a sniff, turning his head to look at him. “I don’t like being idle. I just wanted something to do.”

“You’re supposed to be resting you sneaky little gecko.” Danny pinches the bridge of his eyes. “Don’t supposed you’ve been taking the medicine Amaranth gave you?”

Don puffs up his cheeks before resting his head back on Len’s chest, where Len resumes stroking it “Dad’s been chasing me down, dragging me back to bed and forcing me to take them every five minutes.”

“Well at least I finally got through to you.” Danny says directly to Len this time who stuck his tongue out at him and holds Don to him a little tighter. Danny sets the leg brace aside before rolling his pantleg back down. “Your leg should be ok but we should go see the Healing House tomorrow just to make sure. But you should keep resting,” 

Don rolls his eyes before turning his head away. “Yeah whatever.”

“No.” Danny puts his hand on Dons scalp and turns his head to look at him. “I already have to worry about your Dad doing something stupid every five seconds, so don’t you make me worry about you too.” 

The youngest Mud Dog glares for a moment as though he’s about to argue, but then he flinches in pain again, glancing down his his handicapped leg with a sigh. “Yeah ok. I’m sorry I over used my leg and I’m sorry I worried you.”

“There. And don’t forget to apologize to your father too. You scared the shit out of him.” Danny rubs his scalp. “I’ll get a spell going that will help keep the pain at bay for a while. Don’t distract me.”

Donnie nods, and Leonard finally allows himself to sigh. He had hoped he was quiet enough for no one to notice but Don immediately looks up to him with a look of concern that tells him that he hadn’t gone unnoticed. “Dad I’m,” Don pauses, as his Dad he knows this is hard for him. Len takes a moment to wipe the few stray tears of pain from Don’s face with his sleeve before he continues,“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. A-are you mad at me?”

“I ain’t happy with you, but nah. Mostly worried.” Len rubs Don’s bicep. He could still remember a week earlier when they had been scaling the Imbo Manor. How his heart had stopped when Don lost his grip on the ledge, Danny had tried to grab him but hadn’t reached him in time. Falling five stories would have killed a normal person, but with Don’s levitation abilities and tumbling training they at least cushioned his fall. That hadn’t stopped him from breaking his good leg, but even though he hadn’t cried out the fall itself made enough noise to draw the attention of nearby guardsman. Len had been by his side a moment later, crouching over his half conscious body as guards came by to investigate. But Len kept them hidden with Don’s shadow cloak until the guards got bored and left. 

He still had nightmares about that moment

He would always have nightmares about that moment

Len leans his head back on the headboard as Danny flexes his fingers, probably getting a numbing spell ready. He had become quite good at that since they took Donnie in. Even though Don hasn’t cried out since he carried him from the shed he knew Don was in a large amount of pain “You know,” he says to catch Don’s attention, using his thumb to wipe Don’s streaming face, “Hate to sound sappy, but I still remember when you were small enough to sleep on my chest. Or needed a step ladder to open my bed room door. I can’t tell you the number of mornings where I’d wake up to find you curled up in my side with Yeti Bear.”

“Oh Moon kill me.” Don sighs but was unable to hide the laugh in his voice, “I out grew Yeti Bear years ago.” 

“Uh huh.” Len grins at Danny, who was still preparing the spell, before reaching underneath Don’s pillow and pulling out the old mismatched yeti. “You mean THIS Yeti Bear?”

Don immediately pouts. “Give me that,” he says snatching Yeti bear from Len and holding him to his chest. “Ok so I still like Yeti Bear.”

Len can’t help but smile at the pouting Donnie, “Your Uncle made that for you. Do you remember?” He asks as Donnie shakes his head, “After we moved back to our old home, you started to get really anxious and scared. So I stayed at home taking care of you, it was fun but you were a little hell child. Climbing on everything, climbing on me, pulling my precious hair.”

“Thanks for that by the way,” Danny said, rubbing his now glowing palms together. “He finally stopped clogging the shower drain with his long ass hair.” Len is about to give the usual ‘atleast I have hair’ response when Don gives out a small chuckle. Which atleast tells him his methods are working, “Anyway, after a few months you were getting sick of me so I thought Id’ try going on a mission with Mickey and Danny stayed at home with you. Which you were fine with, you even had April over for a sleepover. But you started to get really anxious without me around so your Uncle Danny sewed you Yeti Bear out of my old shirts.” Len peers at Don’s face, “You remember any of that?”

“I don’t remember getting Yeti Bear but I remember you being at home a lot driving me crazy. I remember sneaking around.” Don says ,”And meowing?” He adds looking to him in confusion 

“Yeah you loved to play Chimera , which I really didn’t get, but apparently it was a game that meant you had to follow me around the house without me noticing. Course you were meowing so loudly you weren’t hard to find. But that’s also how I got started trying to teach you stealth.” Len pauses, “Then immediately regretted it when you used those skills against me.”Len smiles, “Even though you drove me nuts and I drove you nuts, You really were the best kid. You were so nervous around strangers, but you were nervous around us at first too so that made sense. But you were get so anxious about everything, if you didn’t know where I was, if there was a storm, if you had a bad dream,” Len tightens his grip a inch, “You would run to my room with Yeti Bear and cry in my arms.”

“I.” Don pauses, giving a small nod before his grip on Lens’ arm tightens, “I remember that.” He says softly 

“At first it was nearly impossible to get you to go back to sleep. I mean you hated sleep anyway, but fi you were anxious it was pretty much set in stone I wasn’t’ sleeping either. I couldn’t. Who can sleep knowing their kid is so miserable?” He asks, “On normal nights though we’d go down to the kitchen and have little drawing parties. But if you were anxious I had a little trick.”

“You did?” 

Len grins, he reaches up and shifts Don’s head around so it was placed directly over his heart. The teen gave him a strange look but otherwise lowered his head back down “I never could understand why, but whenever I’d let you listen to my heartbeat like this and you’d be asleep in seconds. Course that was years ago-“ A soft snore filled the air. Len blinked before looking to Danny who was holding out his green glowing hands over Don’s leg. “Did he really just-“

“Yup fell right asleep.”

“Seriously!?” It takes everything in him not to burst out laughing when he peers at Don’s face and sees Danny’s telling the truth. “I’ll be freaking dammed I can’t believe it.”

“Shush,” Danny hisses, “Don’t wake him.”

“I know I’m not a monster,” Len says, but he can’t help but grin. Watching Danny finishing up the numbing spell, knowing it would keep Don asleep well into tomorrow. Which, in turn meant he was trapped for a while. “Hey Dan,” he says as Danny carefully pulls Don blanket over the sleeping softshell. “Mind going by my room and getting my sketch book?”

“Ugh fine.” Danny goes to do as he’s asked before a loud sigh escapes him.

“Uh oh.” Len grins. “That’s you’re ‘I’m about to give you a reluctant compliment’ sigh.”

“Shut your word hole,” Danny hissed. Len wonders if he’s deterred him from actually speaking til, he sighs again. “Look, I hate to say this, but you’re actually a pretty good Dad.” Before pointing at him accusingly. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

Len grins, settling down against the headboard to get more comfortable. “Wouldn’t dream of it Dan Man.”

(#)(#)(#)(#)

With a gasp, Don is awake his arms wrapped tightly around himself and tear-filled eyes blurring his vision for a moment as he quickly scrubbed them off on the back of his sleeve. Only then does he have the clarity to look below his tree branch resting spot to his fellow travelers. Mikey was curled up by the Phoenix, Infinity, and on the other side he can barely hear Leo’s snores from under his heated weighted blanket. Ugh even his snores were prissy. But after a blinking a few more times he looks around the camp again to the large aurax that Raphael sleeps by and realizes what’s missing.

Raphael. 

He swings his legs over the tree branch, (lifting his handicapped leg to do so) and putting Yeti Bear back in his bag before floating off the branch. It doesn’t take long to look around and see Raph’s not so hidden footprints leading away from camp. Which at least puts him at ease enough to know he hadn’t been taken away (not a that anyone could just steal a giant snapping turtle anyway) and sets after the tracks at a soft pace. After a little walk, he comes across a clearing at that once been home to a thick grove of trees, the turtle himself is sitting at the edge, watching the mystic moon cross the illusion sky. Knowing that Raph is safe makes Donnie consider leaving, but then for some reason he decides to step closer. “You ok over there, big guy?” He calls, even though he kept his voice soft, it’s not enough to keep Raph from jumping and looking to him with tired heavy eyes.

“Um, yeah,” he says. 

“Is that a question or an answer?” Don asks stepping closer.

“Answer.” Raph turns back to look at the moon. Donnie takes a moment to look closer at the destroyed clearing. He notices the way Raph’s panting, and the absence of Raph’s water holder. “Are you having a bad night or??” Donnie asks, taking out his water sack from his bag of holding.

Raph regards the water for a moment. Not as though he doesn’t trust it but as though he doesn’t want to inconvenience Donnie by taking it. But his thirst won over his manners as he takes it and takes a long sip. “Thanks. I usually get up to do some training at this time.”

“Ah,” Don nods. To be fair Donnie does the same thing, but usually when they rest for lunch under the guise of being too annoyed to be around people. “It’s the middle of the night, you should be asleep.”

Raph responds with wrapping his dirty wrapped arms around himself. Whether from the cold or from comfort he didn’t know.“I know,” he says, “its just, harder now.”

“Why?” Donnie steps closer, and takes a place by his side.

“I don’t know, I guess.” Raph looks back towards the camp. ”Because of you guys? Half the time I go to sleep worried you guys will be here when I get up. The other half I’m terrified you guys won't be here when I get up. Like something bad will happen. Mikey doesn’t know how to fight, and Leo might have training but no experience. And you showed him how far that would get him.”

In a way, it’s weird to have a conversation with someone who had been hunting him for his bounty a few weeks ago. And to talk about the fight Leo and he had had a bit ago. But now, even though their conversations are still tense, Don has been trying to make more of an effort to talk to Raph. The poor guy was always a proverbial mass of nerves and anxiety even if he gave off the appearance of a strong warrior. “Well, I know Mikey’s not going anywhere, and we both know that if Leo tried to wonder off, he’d probably get lost and get eaten by a squirrel. As for me.” Donnie shrugged, “I honestly have nowhere else to go.”

“Then why do you hug yourself in your sleep?”

Don blinked. “What do you-“

“In your sleep, you hug yourself. I thought it was just a habit, but it’s almost like you’re holding yourself. So I was confused, but then I thought maybe it was because you were used to someone holding you. Maybe someone you missed. I’m sure you could go back to them.“ Raph blinked as well before rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “Sorry I see a lot of things as a bounty hunter.”

“I bet you do.” He keeps a level tone, but he can already feel his eyes burn. Both in shame and embarrassment. Was he really such a open book? Could people really just look at him and just tell he was just a lost kid who missed his ‘daddy and uncles?’ His stomach churned in anger and he’s grateful that Raph doesn’t seem the notice the loose dirt starting to hover around their feet like dust. “You need to sleep though.” Facts usually help him calm down, and now was no exception. He takes Raph’s large arm in a gentle but firm grip. “We can leave a little later than usual so you can catch up on your sleep. I doubt anyone will complain, I’ll keep watch. I mean your’e not the only one who can fight remember?” He can tell from Raph’s expression that he’s concerned he’s done something wrong but stands up anyway walking on ahead. Don can’t help but sigh. “Raph,” he starts, enough to get the bounty hunger to look back at him. “I do miss them. But there’s no way I can go home to them.”

Raph looks at him for a moment, understanding what he’s saying. “ I bet whoever they are, they miss you too. I bet they’d be happy to see you,” He says before walking ahead. Don reaches back and pulls the hood of his cloak over his head. The tears that managed to escape his eyes catch on the inside of the hood but at least don’t draw attention to himself. He takes a few moments to breath before lowering his hood again, ignoring the rocks and logs finding their place on the ground again (at least Raph didn’t notice) before hurrying back the way he came

They were better off without him.

Everyone was better off without him.

**Author's Note:**

> After this i’m going to start positing all my mud dog family stories to one singular story that way i’m not clogging up the fantasy collection, look for “Mud is thicker then Blood”!!!!


End file.
